Kobe Bryant (1978-2020), in full Kobe Bean Bryant, was an American professional basketball player, who helped lead the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) to five championships (2000-02 and 2009-10).
Bryant's father, Joe ("Jelly Bean") Bryant, was a professional basketball player who spent eight seasons in the NBA and eight more playing in Italy, where Bryant went to school. When his family returned to the United States, Bryant played basketball at Lower Merion High School in Ardmore, Pennsylvania. He gave up going to college and declared himself qualified for the NBA draft when he graduated from high school. The Charlotte Hornets chose him with the 13th pick of the 1996 draft. He was traded to the Lakers shortly after and became the second youngest NBA player in history when the 1996-97 season opened. He quickly proved himself with the Lakers and was selected for the NBA All-Star Game in just his second season, becoming the youngest All-Star.
Bryant was forced to share the role of the Lakers' star player with his popular and talented teammate Shaquille O'Neal. The two had an uneasy relationship, but they found success under the leadership of Phil Jackson, who became coach of the Lakers in 1999. Bryant, a shooting guard, and O'Neal, a center, meshed into a remarkably effective combination, and by the time Bryant was 23, the Lakers had won three consecutive NBA championship.
Bryant was also a member of the gold medal-winning U.S. men's basketball teams at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the 2012 London Olympic Games, In 2015 Bryant wrote the poem Dear Basketball , and two years later it served as the basis for a short film of the same name, which he also narrated. The work won an Academy Award for Best Animated(动画的)Short Film; In 2018 Bryant published the book The Mamba Mentality : How I Play , in which he described his approach to basketball. The title reflected a nickname he gave himself during his playing days, “The Black Mamba”. On January 26,2020, Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter were among a group traveling to a girls' basketball game in a helicopter when it crashed, killing all nine people aboard.
【小题1】What can we learn about Kobe Bryant from the passage?| A．He finished high school in Italy. |
| B．His father was an amateur basketball player. |
| C．He became a member of the Lakers in 1996. |
| D．I His Sacher him a lot about playing basketball. |
| A．Unhappy | B．Acceptable. | C．Indifferent. | D．Optimistic. |
| A．connected. | B．formed. | C．arranged. | D．shifted. |
| A．Bryant's lifetime achievements and death. |
| B．Bryant's non - professional accomplishments. |
| C．The origin of the name of Bryant's 2018 book. |
| D．Awards that Bryant received after his retirement. |
